Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. First founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers and comedies – and in later years, television series. Hammer films had low budgets, but nonetheless appeared lavish, making use of quality British actors and cleverly designed sets. During its most successful years, Hammer dominated the horror film market, enjoying worldwide distribution and considerable financial success. This success was due, in part, to distribution partnerships with major United States studios, such as Warner Brothers.
During the late 1960s and 1970s the saturation of the horror film market by competitors and the loss of American funding forced changes to the previously lucrative Hammer-formula, with varying degrees of success. The company eventually ceased production in the mid-1980s and since then has remained in effective hibernation. But in 2000 the studio announced plans to begin making films again after it was bought by a consortium including advertising executive and art collector Charles Saatchi, but no films have been produced. In May 2007, the company behind the movies was sold again, this time to a group headed by Big Brother creator John de Mol. At least $50m (£25m) will be spent on new horror films after Hammer Film Productions was sold to Dutch consortium Cyrte Investments. The new owners have also acquired the Hammer group's film library.
The term "Hammer Horror" is often used generically to refer to other films of the period made in a similar style by different companies, such as Eros Films, Amicus and Tigon. Hammer Film Productions
The first stills are from a 1964 Hammer horror movie called Nightmare (aka Please Put The Knife Down in the UK).
In this movie, Janet (Jeannie Linden) is being terrorized by visions of her mother's murder of her father, and of someone pursuing her. What she doesn't know is that these 'visions' are being arranged by her guardian Henry Baxter (David Knight) and her 'nurse'-actually Henry's wife, Grace Maddox (Moira Redmond) to drive her insane and then get control of her fortune. But Janet's schoolteacher Mary Lewis (Brenda Bruce) knows what's up, and arranges a ingenious revenge which hinges on her pretending to be Janet in order to drive Grace mad (the feet in the last batch of pictures which are supposed to be Janet's are actually those of Ms. Lewis);
Next up Nastassja Kinski as Catherine in To The Devil, A Daughter from 1975, the last horror movie (to date) from Hammer, also starring Richard Widmark and Christopher Lee. In this movie, Father Michael Rayner (CHRISTOPHER LEE) is ex-communicated from the Church of England for attempting to bring a personification of the devil to Earth. Twenty years on and Rayner has settled in Germany with his devil-worshiping followers under the facade of the "Children of the Lord" cult. Rayner sends his godchild Catherine Beddows (NASTASSJA KINSKI) to England to join her father Henry Beddows (DENHOLM ELLIOT) for her 18th-birthday. Rayner intends to fulfil his old ambition and rebaptise Catherine into the service of evil. Henry who was forced into the cult's evil-doings because his wife was a member of the cult attempts to recant and places his daughter in the care of occult novelist Jim Verney (RICHARD WIDMARK) who must confront and destroy Rayner before he succeeds in making the devil walk the Earth in the form of an innocent girl;
More stills from movies next time.
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